Two books,Dredging of Ganga & the Shipping Scene,today.

2.Dredging of the Ganga as a panacea against recurring floods,shifting streams and navigational –difficulties.

The author has worked for several years with the”Dredging Corporation of India” and wrote a paper for formulating a Bill in the Parliament,which was moved by Sri Rajesh Pilot and passed by the House, and eventually the “Inland Waterways Authority of India” was formed. Even when he was in the DCI, he suggested, on the basis of work being done by him for the Corporation, to Sri Rajiv Gandhi ways and means to control the fury of floods, specially of the Ganga(as declared by the Parliament as No.1 waterway project to be undertaken by the newly formed Authority and particularly the means of controlling the massive amount of silt coming down stream all the way from the Himalayas.
However, the author was able to convince Sri Rajnath Singh a local man become the Shipping Minister ,of starting the work of Dredging on the Ganga ,in a meeting with him in February 2000. And by May the same year the dredging work commenced in Kaithi, inaugurated by the Minister, himself.
Then came about the hurdles, administrative hurdles, regional hurdles and many other types of hurdles, which resulted in shutting- down the work of dredging in Kaithi and on the Ganga as Mr. Nair declared that Ganga was a dead river. The next minister said(as tutored by the officials of the Authority) that there was no water in the Ganga west of Patna and sent me rushing down to the Planning Commission to see Sri K.C.Pant,in order to call the bluff Good news is the effect of my missives on Sri Bagga and Akhand Pratap that they undertook the dredging of the Gomti in Lucknow and used the muck and the silt for building up the two banks height,without bringing earth-work from elsewhere and paying for it.



3.Shipping Scene,today.

There is a blog running and if I am stuck in Mumbai a little longer, the material may eventually come out on the blog itself for compiling it into a book. The whole thing is quite revolutionary, specially as owing to my first association with Shipping, five decades ago and the new trend of quick buck, everywhere, today and the gaping difference in the attitude and outlook about earning an honest buck and living in style and peacefully as against the rat-race of the present days and it stirs me to speak-out of the pain of the seamen, inflicted on him by both the ship-owner and the government in nexus with the shipping Cos. agents It seems the office of the D.G. Shipping is made to support the immoral acts of the ship-owner against the seaman and surely in the long run agaist the ex-chequer . Only an investigating journalist can show it to the media and the public, that aspect of corruption. However, I am not concerning that as my business as I am not trained to be investigative work. I can only speak boldly and frankly of the maladies of the quick buck theory against all morality, which has harmed me and scores of suffering seamen on the world-trade, with documents to prove my points.
How would it sound that the owners plan to sink their ships to earn from the insurance of dead seamen and other items to enhance their property by buying a newer ship with bigger tonnage and higher earning capacity?
How would it sound that when faced by the need to shell-out dollars in wages, they stoop-down to having the seaman arrested by the local police and in European atmosphere, the Owner’s representative himself gets arrested ,if the agent is an honest bloke. They pay only if you are able to extract the wages before leaving the ship, but never after you have left the ship. Then it is distributed among the officals and clerks of the DG and the Shipping Master’s office. That is indicated by the fact that even IAS level officers get involved as shown by the RTI reports. And some RTIs don’t ever come the Shipping Master sending reminders after reminders to the Shipping Company, to the questions that they themselves ought to reply.
The seaman is on the receiving end all the time and from every quarter. The latest addition are the “next to God for a seaman-the Govt. Ship and Engine Surveyors ”They are racking their brains in trying their best to be equal to administrative officer of the Govt. of India, e.g. ;additional secretaries, joint secretaries and deputy secretaries to the Govt. of India and are behaving like big shots, while the scene is turning murkier as they are becoming haughty,arrogant,misbehaved, day by day.otherwise even vindictive,if their sense of one-upmanship is hurt Anyway,they go all out for the kill regardless of any morality and human decency,let alone the officer-like qualities for which they must have been allotted marks in their respective training institutions.I am still trying not to expose them, but it is not only a question of dignity but also a question of survival of the fittest and also a matter of the need to nip their attitude of arrogance and child-like behaviour of one-upmanship in the bud .The Shipping ministry thinks the DG is enough to take care of the matter, but DG never takes any interest as they think they are in Mumbai to inculcate good relations with the ship-owners and not for the redressal of sea-farers grievances..
Even if I am satisfied with the action of the ministry and the DG,in their conduct of dealing with the seaman in a proper manner, the stories of the degradation of the ship-owners is worth relating,in which the DG ‘s underlings are again involved So what to do. Wait for a supari and ask for protection from Sri Chidambaram.of Sri Hukum Deo Narain.I wrote to the PM and thank God Sri Yadav was shifted to agriculture.
There is a lot of correspondence and assurances from chief secretaries, but nothing ever materialized .There were always queries from the central minister Sri Murli Manohar Joshi to extend
the navigational facility upto Allahabad,as per the Bill of the Parliament, but soon enough the Authority closed down their office in Allahabad once BJP was out of office at the Centre.
Joining the rivers of the south and the north is a dream of Capt.Dastur and it involves such large sums of resources, without matching returns that it will always remain a pipe-dream. Where as in Rajasthan people in the villages have done indigenous dredging and building check-dams to store water for bathing, drinking and small cultivation and the local collectors have exhorted them and offered official help too. There is the community of the mallahs who are experts in bandalling , channelising and silt control. The Authority has become too authoritative and can approach the ministers to dictate their terms for their convenient location for the project-people,which automatically excludes the Ganga. Even bureaucrats wield pressure on the minister on behalf of technocrats who are operating on regionalism as their priority and till yesterday wanted to stay south.
This has to be straightened-out and the flood’s fury of the Ganga has to be tamed and the river made navigable,year-round,even when Mr.Joshi and myself are not around.